Nearly 25 million adults living in the United States take antidepressant medications. Unfortunately, 10 to 30 percent of those taking antidepressants are resistant to the drugs' effects. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that patients with depression who took psilocybin were more than three times more likely to experience remission than those who didn’t.

Researchers evaluated the findings of randomized clinical trials and open-label trials that evaluated depression symptoms among patients diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses or major depressive disorder after receiving psilocybin therapy. They included nine studies involving nearly 600 patients in their final analysis.

They found that participants taking psilocybin were more than twice as likely to have a positive response to therapy than those not taking the drug. They were also more than three times more likely to experience symptom remission.

These findings suggest that psilocybin exerts potent antidepressant effects when used with psychotherapy. Several non-pharmacological adjunct therapies have demonstrated effectiveness in modulating the symptoms of depression, including exercise, dietary modification, meditation, sauna use, and light therapy. Learn more about these approaches in our overview article on depression.

Psilocybin is a psychedelic compound present in mushrooms. Learn more about the effects of psilocybin and other psychedelic drugs in this episode featuring Dr. Roland Griffiths.